Description
In this presentation I explore the complex interplay between mobility, freedom, and borders as the result of the global landscape of migration and border control, in the context of the Bibby Stockholm barge on the Isle of Portland. Based on ethnographic research on the Isle of Portland between May and September 2024, I approach these issues methodologically from the situated angle of the embodiment of everyday incarcerations and injustices in the concrete experiences of people (including the researcher herself), as they walk to and from and in between the multiple prisons on the islands. I am particularly interested in the ethico-political issues and possibilities at stake in walking together in a context of unfreedom as well as the context of academic research and the boundaries of the so-called ‘field’. By reflecting on the ‘carceral view’ of the barge from the vantage point of another prison, the HMP the Verne, and its simultaneous invisibility down at the port, I proceed with a discussion on imaginaries and experiences of everyday incarcerations but, also, connections emerging between groups of people that states aim to divide and separate along racialised and gendered lines. I conclude this discussion with an image of a travelling ship that was visible in the horizon, as we engaged in conversations about our ongoing journeys that brought us to the Isle of Portland and our dreams for future ones and hopes to reconnect, to reflect on abolitionist views and horizons. In this way, floating vessels transcend their immediate physical presence, becoming symbolic of people's desires to connect and their dreams to travel against and beyond borders and prisons.
